The lovely Ms engatwork and I have spent the past week in NYC staying about 1/2 block from Times Square. Saw and did a lot of neat stuff and took Amtrak. We got a bedroom on Amtrak which is pretty neat.

Anyway I did not see all the rampant crime that demedia portrays for the city. We do go to bed around 8 pm every night so we not out on streets all night. I'm sure there are areas in the city that ppl like me should not visit so we didn't. Basically I've come to conclusion you can't believe all the BS demedia puts out there.

We were mistaken for being homeless a couple times while waiting for the $150/plate resturant that we were standing outside ofto open. Seems i wore a heavy brown Carhardt jacket that is favored by the homeless. I only saw two ppl with same jacket on that were not homeless and we saw a lot of ppl

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Jim

Heh! Those jackets are awesome. I used to have a factory second but these days I don’t spend that much time outside in the cold. Shoveling snow maybe.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Times square is touristy but the only crime there is pickpockets, and you'll see some homeless folks, but they mind their own business. I used to work in a building a few blocks from there on W36th near herald square. Great area with so much to do -- Penn drops you right in the middle of it! Endless excellent restaurants, shows, etc. Glad to hear you had a great time -- most of what is peddled on Fox news about cities being bad are almost all overblown. Folks need to get out and touch grass every once in a while.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

That's what I'm seeing.

I regret we didn't stop for a few days in Philly. I want the lovely Ms engatwork to experience Reading Terminal Market. I googled to see if there was anything like it in NYC and came up with nothing that could compare.

I saw two v12 exotic cars driving around in that mess and kinda felt sorry for the car. That sucker did sound good when he revved it a time or two. Longest we have gone without driving in a long time.

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Jim

I could spend a lot of time in Philly. I rented an e-bike last time I was there and had dinner at Morimoto. The Italian market is awesome. It’s also close to Baltimore if you want crab.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

I haven't been to NYC in a long time. I'm long overdue to have a martini at the MO lounge at the Mandarin Oriental, and to also hit the Guggenheim and the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. Maybe this Spring...

We must have got too close to some undesirables because we both came down with Covid. Does not look like there is going to be much to it. We self medicating.

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Jim

maga rally? oh, and sowwy to hear about you guys, get well soon

Are you two going to be well enough to attend the possum drop?

LOL, should make the possum drop.

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Jim

They still using live ones by you?

The plastic possums used by the pretender municipalities are so disappointing...

PETA.

I just rode Amtrak from Emeryville to OlyWA and back - before and after Christmas. I was in coach, going in a sleeper car would be pretty fine - bring money. I accidentally went the wrong direction and wandered into the dining car during dinner. Smelled pretty good, looked pretty festive.

You can't see any good scenery at night anyway. May as well stretch out. Being wintertime, much of the trip was in the dark, I did see some pretty wild sights from the Cal/Or border up to Eugene. It goes on a route that I've never driven, through Klamath Falls, and then up to some tiny little town by Crater Lake - Chemult, OR - population 80, Amtrak stop. I think it's because of all the hiking in the vicinity. The wild part is between there and Eugene, gets into some serious switchback action, tunnels, tunnels connected by bridges and more tunnels. I think it goes about 30 miles an hour through that stretch if that. Unfortunately, on the way back, it was completely dark.

And the human habitation you see from the rails. You see some nice homesteads and businesses and you see some hillbilly havens, junk all over the place right up 10 feet from the tracks. Somewhere around Albany, Oregon, I saw it both directions, was a small wrecking yard, probably seen mostly by people on the train - tall fences. They had a late 60s Saab, model 96 I think, anyway the old kind with the V4. The body looked to be in pretty good shape. Somebody somewhere wants those parts. You don't see much of them anymore, but they are still a niche favorite here and there.

Sleeping is a bit dicey on the coach cars. When I first got on, I was looking around for a seatbelt, then it struck me. They don't stop in a hurry, even if they hit someone they don't stop in a hurry.

One of my favorite parts was seeing all the cars waiting for us to pass at railroad crossings. I'm thinking "Wait peasants, wait, we got the right of way."

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

This was my first time on Amtrak. We took 7:30 pm train out of S'vah, arrived at Penn Station around noon next day. I was pretty optimistic I'd be able to sleep but I was not able to tell if I got any sleep or not . Pretty rough ride. We did run between 90 and 110 mph based on what waze navigation app was saying. You had to be running parallel to a road for it to work. I looked one time and we were going 109 in a 25.

We will use it again.

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Jim